


Unexpected Situations

by FalseRobot



Series: The Wolf, the Scarred Soldier, and the Galactic Damsel in distress [1]
Category: Mass Effect - All Media Types, Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Canon-Typical Violence, F/F, F/M, Multi, Other Additional Tags to Be Added
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-20
Updated: 2017-10-30
Packaged: 2018-08-31 23:52:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 12,202
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8598802
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FalseRobot/pseuds/FalseRobot
Summary: Between the hunt for the rogue SpecTRe Saren Arterius, an out of place werewolf, finding love, and her multi species crew of the SSV Normandy. Staff Commander Athena Shepard is not sure what to expect after the Eden Prime mission goes sideways and the situations that the galaxy keeps throwing at her does not help at all.  (I do not own or wish to claim ownership over the Mass Effect Series and its characters. All credit belongs to Bioware. I am creating my own version for entertainment purposes only.)





	1. Prologue

**October 10 th, 1918, somewhere on the British frontline**.

 

It was lightly raining in the No Man’s Land as Isaac begrudgingly crawled through the mud, grumbling.

 

“Sunny with some clouds all week but on the eve of the assault, it just had to rain on our trenches but not on the bloody Jerry trenches. What sodding luck.”

 

Isaac cautiously shifts his focus upward to look ahead of himself so he can get a bearing on how far away he was from the British frontline and sees a burnt out wreck of a Mark V Landship. “Jolly, just another hundred meters or so and I will finally be out of this marksman’s paradise.”

 

Crawling as fast and careful possible, Isaac reaches the wreck sits himself up in between the Landship’s forward facing tracks, taking a few moments to catch his breath and clean off some of the mud from his fur and uniform. He peeks his head out around the edge of the tracks that face towards the German trenches and scans for the enemy marksmen who spotted him not long ago. But all Isaac sees is a flat, muddy, barren field littered with bodies from previous failed assaults, artillery shell impact sites, burnout wrecks of various vehicles; and the target of today’s assault, a fortified German bunker situated on large hill with various defenses and a maze of trenches, looming off in the distance.

 

Turning his attention back to the British trenches, Isaac repositions himself into a crouching position in preparation for the upcoming mad dash. Isaac springs from his position, running as fast as he can in the mud. Ahead of him, he can hear some allied soldiers yelling ‘HOLD YOUR FIRE HOLD YOUR FIRE, he is one of ours’ as Isaac reaches the entrance into the trenches. Once inside the trenches, Isaac takes a moment to catch his breath before making his way to the command post to inform the commanding officer of his findings.

 

After navigating the seemingly endless maze of trenches, Isaac reaches the operations tent where he hears the Lieutenant General and his advisors planning the latest assault. Isaac straightens out his uniform then brushes off any stray clumps of dried mud from his facial fur, snout, and slightly bushy tail before stepping into the tent.

 

“Corporal Isaac Strausburg reporting in, sir!” Isaacs say as he snaps and holds a salute.

 

“At ease, Corporal. Report what you have found.” The Lt. General returning the salute.

 

Isaac brings out a small notepad from his pack and walks up to the “Sir the bunker on Hill 42 is defended by 3 levels of trenches, 7 Vickers machineguns, 3 field cannons, 4 mortar emplacements, and around 50 soldiers from what I could see, Leftenant General. Also sir, it didn’t rain on German side of the battlefield last night”

 

The Lt. General scoffs at the “Thank you for your report, Corporal. Report back to your regiment on the frontline and tell them what to expect. They are going in with the first wave. And change your uniform, it would be a waste to lose such a talented soldier to friendly fire.”

 

“Sir, yes, sir!”

 

An hour later.

 

Isaac is inspecting his bayoneted Lee-Enfield Mk. III rifle, Webley Revolver, and the rest of his equipment one final time while nervously waiting in the trench, surrounded by his fellow soldiers, for the whistle to blow, signaling the charge.

 

Suddenly his Lieutenant shouts “STAND READY!” causing the entire trench to quickly ready themselves against the outer edge of the trench.

 

_PHWEEEEEEEEET_

With that, everyone springs forth from the trench, charging the German lines at full speed while screaming at the top of their lungs. In the distance behind him, Isaac can hear the booms of the artillery firing off their shells one after another. In front of him, the German trench unleashes a barrage of mortar fire into the charging line of men. A few of mortar shells land around Isaac, killing or severely wounding several men but does nothing to stop the charge.

 

As the charge neared the German trenches, the German soldiers and the Vickers machine guns opened fire into the charge, cutting down some of the men as mortars continue to rain shells down unto the charge. But the defensive fire was cut short as artillery shells start mercilessly pounding the German trenches. The shelling stops as the charge comes within 2 meters of the trenches.

 

Isaac drops down into the trench, plunging his rifle’s bayonet in the still recovering German soldier’s chest. Just as he lands, another German soldier charges Isaac from his left, forcing Isaac to leave the rifle impaled in the dead soldier and to deflect the charge with his left arm. As soon as the German soldier is past him, Isaac quickly draws his revolver and fires two bullets into the upper back of the soldier, killing him. Isaac fires off the rest of the cylinder into two distracted German soldiers just beyond the soldier he just killed. Suddenly, someone impales Isaac in the lower back, causing Isaac to snarl in pain and drop his empty revolver. Isaac stumbles forward a couple steps gripping his shovel tightly when he feels the blade begin to pull out of his body. Isaac whips suddenly to face the soldier who stabbed him and buries the shovel blade into the soldier’s neck.

 

Heaving, Isaac quickly looks around him for more enemy soldiers as pulls the bayoneted rifle out but only sees a trench filled with allied soldiers moving further up the hill. He looks down at the soldier he just killed hoping he didn’t accidently kill an ally. Thankfully he sees that it was a German soldier so he moves on to retrieve his dropped revolver and rifle. After a brief equipment check and making sure that the stab wound was closed up, Isaac joins the other soldiers and moves further up as well.

 

Moving up through the German trenches, Isaac was met with stiff but crumbling resistance put up by the defenders. Nearing the final stretch that leads into the bunker, the high pitched shrill of falling artillery shells fill the air motivating Isaac to rush towards the bunker amidst the explosions. Reaching the pathway leading into the bunker itself, the area around Isaac becomes eerily silent when he hears a deep pitched shrill above his head getting louder. Isaac rushes towards the entrance in a sprint but the shell lands in the space in-between Isaac and the bunker’s entrance. Isaac is blown backwards as the scorching heat of the explosion and the cloud of dust, dirt, and shrapnel completely engulfs Isaac, turning the world around him black.

 

**May 2183, Arcturus Station, one week before the Eden Prime mission.**

 

Captain Anderson walks down the empty corridor in rushed manner, hoping the urgent call from Fleet Admiral Hackett to meet him and Ambassador Udina, wasn’t about the theft of SSV Normandy causing a diplomatic incident with the Turian Hierarchy.

 

Nearing his destination, he lets out a heavy sigh in an attempt to relieve himself of some of the frustration that had built up recently. The security debacle that ended the pilot trials before they had even begun was enough to bring about a severe migraine, though finding such a talented pilot so quickly _ALMOST_ made up for it. Reaching the door, Anderson pauses for a second to straighten up his appearance before opening the door.

 

“Thank you for coming, Captain Anderson. How goes the pilot trials for the SSV Normandy and picking her crew?” Admiral Hackett greets as he returns Anderson’s salute while Ambassador Udina simply nods.

 

“Admiral, Ambassador.” Anderson greets. “The trials were over before they even started but that story is for another time. What is it that you called me here for?”

 

“Earlier today, a turian Spectre by the name of Nihlus Kryik contacted our embassy on the Citadel.” Ambassador Udina begins.

 

“What did he want?” Anderson asks, intrigued.

 

“He wants to put forward the name of one of our N7 status marines for Spectre candidacy. But he doesn’t know where to begin so he asked us to select a suitable candidate.” Ambassador Udina continues.

 

“I assume you already have list of suitable candidates, Admiral?” Anderson asks intruiged.

 

“Yes I do, which is why we called you here so you can provide feedback on the suitable candidates.” Admiral Hackett replies “Since you are the most experienced Special Force officers in the Alliance military and the fact that you are the only human soldier to work side by side with a Spectre for an extended period of time.

 

“Alright, who’s first on the list? Anderson asks, cringing a bit at the mention of working with a Spectre side by side part.

 

“First is Lieutenant Harrison.” Admiral Hackett states as he picks up and opens the first file from the large stack of personnel files.

 

Hours later.

 

The three men slump back in their chairs, exhausted from the endless discussion and arguing on which marine they’re going to choose for the Spectre Candidacy. Ambassador Udina looks over the conference table filled with open personnel files that are haphazardly scattered around on top of it. He spies an unopened personnel file, in the place where the large stack of personnel files used to be, that has N7 markings and a partially covered name: a Jane Shepard, Cdr.

 

“What about this ‘Jane Shepard’?” Ambassador Udina wearily asks, picking up and reading the unopened file, which Anderson looks at, realizing that he had noticed it beforehand. “The file says she lived aboard starships most her life.”

 

“It’s Staff Commander Athena Shepard, Ambassador, Jane is her middle name.”

 

“I see. What is her background like?”

 

“Well, both of her parents serve in the Alliance Military. Her mother is currently the Captain of the SSV Kilimanjaro and her father died a war hero defending Mindoir from a Batarian slave raid in 2170, which became her main inspiration for joining the Alliance Military.” Anderson explains as Admiral Hackett picks up and opens Commander Athena Jane Shepard’s personnel file before inspecting it for himself.

 

“She’s the sole survivor of the Olympus Hostage Crisis where she unwittingly ordered all of the 433rd to their deaths.” Admiral Hackett explains continuing off of Anderson’s explanation as Ambassador Udina takes Shepard’s personnel file back from Admiral Hackett’s hands.

 

“But she still managed to liberate the colony from the pirates despite the loss of her unit.” Anderson adds.

 

“Are you sure this is the kind of person we would want protecting the galaxy?” Ambassador Udina questions, inspecting the file more thoroughly.

 

“She’s a survivor who can get the job done right no matter the cost while having more than enough evidence and reasoning to justify her actions.” Anderson states as looks over the table covered in personnel files they couldn’t agree on before bringing his gaze back to Ambassador Ambassador Udina.

 

“Even if she was accused of mass murder for what happened during the Olympus Hostage Crisis?” Ambassador Udina challenges.

 

“Gentlemen, gentlemen.” Admiral Hackett interrupts. “Shepard wouldn’t have been included if those accusations were found to be true. Otherwise she would be rotting way in a maximum security prison instead of being a respected naval officer the Alliance can rely on.”

 

“Hrmm” Ambassador Udina folding his arms as he glares at the other two men for a couple of seconds before relenting. “I’ll make the call.”

 

As Ambassador Udina moves away to gain some privacy, Admiral Hackett sits down next to Anderson who is relieved that the hours of debate is finally over.

 

“Have you found a suitable candidate to be your Executive officer, Captain?” asks Admiral Hackett.

 

Anderson smirks at the question before replying. “Funny thing about that, I already asked the Staff Commander and she said yes. I just need an admiral’s authorization to complete the paperwork.”

 

“You have my authorization, Captain. I have a feeling that this posting will not only benefit her but also the entire Systems Alliance and possibly the whole galaxy if she becomes a Spectre.” Admiral Hackett grinning slightly as he leans back in his chair.

 

Suddenly the ambassador sits down across from the two men and speaks. “Good news, gentlemen. Nihlus will consider our choice and will be putting the commander’s name forward to the Council if he approves. And even more good news is that there may be a mission for a Spectre to assess Shepard’s candidacy.”

 

“What’s the mission?” the Admiral inquires.

 

“A research team on Eden Prime unearthed some sort of beacon in the Prothean ruins they are excavating. But they say it will be another week before they can fully excavate it without causing damage. So Captain Anderson, I want you coordinate with Admiral Hackett and get whoever you need for a full crew onboard the SSV Normandy and have the ship ready within the week.” Ambassador Ambassador Udina commands before getting up to leave the conference room.

 

Anderson and Admiral Hackett watch the ambassador march out of the conference room speaking into his OMNI-tool.

 

“So Captain, what news does comes from the pilot trials if they were wrapped up before they even began?” the admiral asks looking over at Captain Anderson.

 

“Good news is that we have an extremely talented pilot with the skills and an academy record to backup that claim.”

 

“And the bad news?”

 

“He’s a comedian with Vrolik’s syndrome.” Anderson replies in the most deadpan tone of voice he could muster.


	2. When it rains...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: It's alive! I swear it is. I am sorry for the lack updates over the past year. I have been struck with writer's block and trying to figure out how not to straight up copy the game while keeping the story itself unique. So enjoy the story and comment feedback, thoughts, praise, and/or dislike if you want.
> 
> Speech identifiers  
> "text" = characters talking  
> 'text' = characters thoughts  
> "Italicized text" = ghosts talking  
> ("text") = characters talking through a radio or something similar  
> {"text"} = characters talking in a recording.

**SSV Normandy, The day of the Eden Prime mission**

Staff Commander Athena Shepard leans on the railing overlooking the galaxy map as the crew rushes about preparing the SSV Normandy for launch from Arcturus Station. She takes a deep breath and exhales as she runs her hands through her snow white hair to calm herself while she gets used to the feeling being temporarily in command while Captain Anderson coordinates with Alliance Command in his office. In the corner of her eye, she sees the brown scaly bird-like Turian SpecTRe with a white face paint-like clan marking that covers his face who is overseeing the Normandy's shakedown run, Nihlus Kryik, speaking into his Omni-tool while watching her closely.

 

Looking down at a data-pad in front of her, she sees the reflection her nervous face with rosy pale skin, eyes that are a beautiful mix of sapphire blue and emerald green, light gray eyebrows, light pink lips, and a large scar that stretches from one side of her face to the other side across the bridge of her nose.

 

Athena takes another deep breath and keys the intercom for a ship wide broadcast. "All stations please report status of launch preparations."

 

("The med-bay is secured, Commander.") Dr. Chloe Michel reports.

 

("Crew Quarters and mess hall are safely secured, Shepard.") Captain Anderson replies.

 

("The Mako and armory are secured, Commander.") The requisitions officer, Flight Lieutenant Steve Cortez replies.

 

("The engine room is secure and the Tantalus drive core is not showing any problems, Commander.") Engineer Greg Adams reports.

 

("The CIC is secured, Commander.") Navigator Charles Pressly reports from a nearby terminal.

 

("The cockpit is secured and we are green across the board.") 2nd Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko reports.

 

"Acknowledged." Athena replies to all of them before switching intercom channel from ship wide to the cockpit. "Flight Lieutenant Moreau, get permission from Arcturus Control to undock and get the ship underway towards the relay."

 

("Yes, ma'am!") Flight Lieutenant Jeff Moreau immediately replies from the pilot’s seat in the cockpit.

 

Athena turns off the intercom and tunes her radio to listen in on the conversation between the helmsman and Arcturus Control in case something goes wrong.

 

("Arcturus Control, this is the SSV Normandy. Requesting permission to undock.")

 

("SSV Normandy, this is Arcturus Control. Permission to undock has been granted. Have safe travels, Arcturus Control out.") The ship shudders as the docking clamps release themselves from the ship's outer hull, signaling the helmsman to ease the ship out of the dock and into open space.

 

20 minutes later…

 

(“Approaching the Arcturus Prime Relay. Initiating transmission sequence”) Flight Lt. Moreau announces over the intercom announces. “Connected to the Relay and beginning preparations for mass transit.”

 

Out of the corner of her eye, Nihlus leaves the spot he was occupying and heads towards the helm only to stop midway and look all around him as if trying to catch someone red handed. Raising an eyebrow to this display, Athena leaves the galaxy map and follows him to the helm as Nihlus shakes his head in confusion before resuming his walk towards the helm.

 

("Beginning approach to the Arcturus Mass Relay.") The pilot announces over the intercom, prompting Athena to hold onto a nearby wall to brace herself. ("Entering the Mass Relay in 3... 2... 1...")

 

The ship pulls alongside the relay and begins to glow blue as the relay encapsulates the ship in a mass effect bubble. Moments later the relay launches the Normandy towards the Exodus Relay light years away and second later, the ship arrives in the Exodus Cluster with a sudden jolt from the sudden deceleration.

 

Athena quickly resumes her journey towards the cockpit, catching up to Nihlus as Flight Lieutenant Moreau audibly goes over post relay jump checks.

 

“Under 1500 is good. Your Captain will be pleased.” Nihlus compliments in his dual toned voice that is common amongst the turians as a species before turning around to leaving the cockpit.

 

"You okay there, Nihlus? I saw you nearly jump out your skin and look around wildly." Athena whispers after she taps Nihlus on the shoulder hard enough to not startle him. She silently curses her height of 5’ 9” as she cranes her neck to look up at Nihlus’ face.

 

"I'm fine, Commander."

 

"Are you sure?"

 

"Yeah I'm sure. Just an old injury acting up all of a sudden." Nihlus unconvincingly replies as he backs away from the cockpit slowly before turning around completely to head towards the CIC.

 

'Riiight.' Athena thinks to herself before turning back towards the cockpit.

 

"I hate that guy." Flight Lieutenant Moreau states flatly as soon as Nihlus is out of earshot, catching Athena's attention.

 

"You've known him all of what? An hour or two? And you already hate him after he gives you a compliment?" Lieutenant Alenko asks perplexed by the sudden statement.

 

Flight Lieutenant Moreau opens his to respond but Athena interrupts suddenly causing both men to jump in their seats. "Lieutenant Alenko is right. That is no way to treat guests, especially ones that outrank the captain. Surely there must be a reason for this sudden hatred?"

 

"SpecTRes are usually trouble whenever they are around doing something. Call me paranoid." Flight Lieutenant Moreau says with a small shrug.

 

“You’re paranoid, Joker. The council is within their rights to send a Spectre to keep an eye on the ship they help fund.” Lieutenant Alenko replies.

 

“That’s the official story being told. But why would we need a SpecTRe and a full crew of people handpicked by the famous Captain David Anderson himself, one of the first N7 status Special Operation soldiers in the Systems Alliance next to the equally famous Lieutenant Commander John Shepard, for a simple shakedown run in one of the most well protected regions within Alliance territory?.” Flight Lieutenant Moreau retorts.

 

“I agree with you, Flight Lieutenant. This shakedown run is suspicious.” Athena says. “You don't send a SpecTRe on shakedown run. A high ranking officer from the Hierarchy would make more sense since the Normandy is a joint project between the Systems Alliance and the Turian Hierarchy."

 

Lieutenant Alenko opens his mouth to say something but Flight Lieutenant Moreau cuts him off. “Please… call me Joker, ma’am. It’s much easier to say Flight Lieutenant Jeff Moreau.”

 

“Will do, Joker.” Athena replies.

 

Lieutenant Alenko tries to say something again but the cockpit’s intercom activates suddenly, cutting him off. (“Flight Lieutenant Moreau! What's our status?") Anderson suddenly asks over the intercom with clear annoyance in his voice.

 

"The relay jump was successful and we are green across the board." Joker replies.

 

("Good. If you see Commander Shepard, tell her that she is to report to the Comms room for a mission briefing.")

 

"Roger that, Captain." Joker replies. "You get that, Commander?"

 

“Yeah. Something must come up to interfere with the shakedown run for the Captain to sound that annoyed.”

 

"Nah, he sounds like that whenever he talks to me" Joker brags, earning a raised eyebrow from Athena.

 

"Gee, I wonder why." Lieutenant Alenko mutters to himself, turning his attention back to the copilot’s console.

 

"Right. I should go." Athena awkwardly says then turns around and begins making her way towards the communication room. Along the way, she passes by Navigator Presley idly chatting with Adams through the intercom and further along is Dr. Michel tending to Corporal Richard Jenkins in front of the dividing wall in between the galaxy map and door to the Comms room. Near them is a puddle of vomit that is currently being cleaned up by a serviceman.

 

"What happened here, Dr. Michel?" Athena asks, stopping to inspect the scene.

 

"A case of what appears to be an upset stomach caused by sudden vertigo from exiting the mass relay, Commander." Dr. Michel replies as she begins scanning Jenkins.

 

"Sorry Commander, I haven't had many ship assignments before." Corporal Jenkins weakly apologizes, looking away as if he did something to offend Athena.

 

Athena huffs a small sigh. "At ease corporal, you're still young with long career ahead of you. So please don't think that this happening is a bad thing, it's actually a lot more common than you think it is."

 

"Really?"

 

"Yeah."

 

"Thank you, Commander." Corporal Jenkins chuckles. “When do you think we’ll some action? I’m itching for a fight.”

 

"What?" Athena and Dr. Michel asks in mild shock before Athena continues on. "Are you sure you want that?"

 

"Yes ma’am."

 

"And why is that?" Athena inquires, obviously intrigued and Corporal Jenkins brightens up at the question.

 

“I want to see Nihlus in action and see if the vids about SpecTRes are true.”

 

“Those vids are usually just mindless action pieces like the Blasto series or over dramatized spy flicks.” Dr. Michel chides.

 

Though disheartened by the comment at first, an idea crosses Corporal Jenkin’s face. “Hey Commander, you would make an excellent SpecTRe.”

 

“On what grounds, Corporal?” Athena asks incredulously.

 

"It's because you are the Savior of Olympus who survived the deadly trap set by the nefarious pirates and stormed their base rescuing the colonists being held hostage while avenging your fallen comrades at the same time. Then this one time I heard-" He excitedly begins to explain, miming various poses as he goes on, causing Athena to suddenly tense up.

 

"A lot good people died during that mission, Corporal. Most of them friends." Athena interrupts sternly before the memories of her being helpless to stop her friends from dying all around her, the shuttle explosion, and her rage filled actions that followed bubble up to the surface.

 

Corporal Jenkins rubs the back of his neck and looks away, realizing his mistakes. “I- I’m sorry, Commander. I… I didn’t know.”

 

"Apology accepted. Are you feeling better now, Corporal?"

 

"I am, Commander." Corporal Jenkins replies "Though my point still stands. SpecTRes are the council's handpicked agents who operate above the law for missions that could include singlehandedly destroying pirate bases, stopping mad scientists, infiltrating heavily fortified enemy bases, so on. Given your record, Commander, you would make a perfect SpecTRe."

 

Dr. Michel snorts a chuckle at Jenkins explanation. "You've been watching too many spy vids, Caporal. Surely whatever missions SpecTRes do are a lot more boring than what the vids make them out to be."

 

"Aw come on, Doc. Where's your sense of adventure?"

 

"That sense of adventure usually gets young soldiers such as yourself a stay in the med-bay because of a stupid mistake that was made during said 'adventure', Caporal." Dr. Michel retorts.

 

"You're young, Corporal and you have a long career ahead you. Rushing ahead and taking shortcuts will grant you an early and pointless death." Athena adds.

 

"Roger that, Commander!"

 

"Shouldn't you be somewhere, Corporal?" Athena asks, checking the time on her Omni-tool.

 

Corporal Jenkins chuckles briefly before he suddenly gives the two women a deer caught in the headlights look at the realization that he's late for his shift.

 

"You're dismissed, Corporal, and… thank you." Athena says with a small smile.

 

"Y-your welcome, Commander!" Corporal Jenkins snaps a salute that Athena immediately returns and rushes off to his shift below decks.

 

“Commandant, are you alright?" The doctor worriedly asks resting a hand on Athena's shoulder.

 

"Yeah, I'm okay, doctor." Athena replies.

 

"Are you sure? I saw how you tensed up when Jenkins suddenly brought up Olympus."

 

"Really, Dr. Michel, I'm fine." Athena says with a slightly nervous smile. "It was something I could handle despite sudden mention of it."

 

Dr. Michel gives Athena a questioning look of disbelief. "I should go, Doctor. The Captain is expecting me in the Comms room soon."

 

"Come see me if you need someone to talk to about these sort of things, Commandant." Dr. Michel says before entering the stairwell to return to the med bay.

 

Athena nods in response then takes a moment to recompose herself and enters the Comms Room. Inside, she immediately notices how dimly lit the room is and the unmistakable outline of Nihlus studying an image of Eden Prime displayed on the Comm room’s vid-screen.

 

"Nihlus?"

 

"Ah Commander, I was hoping you would get here before Captain did."

 

"What for?"

 

"What can you tell me about this world we are going to? The one you humans call Eden Prime.”

 

"It's one of the humanity's first colonies whose main industry is agriculture. Those who visited Eden Prime say that it is paradise." Athena explains.

 

"Yes a paradise. Proof that humanity can establish and protect its colonies." Nihlus confirms with a nod, never taking his eyes away from the screen. "But is humanity truly ready to be on the galactic stage?"

 

Athena tries to reply to Nihlus' question but the opening and closing captures their attention as Captain Anderson strolls into the Comms room. "Good, both of you are already here. We can get this meeting on why the Normandy is really going to Eden Prime."

 

"About time Captain, the crew is beginning to get suspicious of why a full crew and a council SpecTRe are needed for a simple shakedown run." Athena states.

 

"The reason why comes down from the top, Commander." Anderson begins. "A week ago, a research team were digging up recently discovered Prothean ruins when they uncovered a functional data beacon similar to the one found on Mars."

 

"Then it's ok to assume we are making a covert pick up." Athena guesses, realizing the importance of the beacon.

 

"Which is why we needed the Normandy and her stealth systems along with a full crew and Nihlus." Anderson points out. "Do I need to remind you of what happened last time humanity made a discovery like this? Or how valuable it is to someone that they would consider attacking a colony?"

 

"No sir" Athena immediately replies.

 

"But that is one of the reasons why I am here, Commander." Nihlus adds.

 

"One of the reasons?" Athena asks.

 

"Yes. The other reason is that I am here to evaluate your candidacy to become an agent of the Office of Special Tactics and Reconnaissance." Nihlus says, surprising Athena and earning a knowing smirk from Anderson. "This mission will the first of many in my evaluation process."

 

"Are you sure?" Athena stutters.

 

"Yes I am." Nihlus confirms. "The crisis on Olympus was a very messy situation that could ended worse than it actually did but still you survived and rescued the hostages against all odds."

 

"So you read my file."

 

"Yes I did and the fact that you made it through the treatment you received that would have broken most soldiers and came out stronger, smarter, and better equipped further proves your potential as a SpecTRe. Which is why I put your name forward.”

 

“You put my name forward?” Athena questions skeptically. “Why would...”

 

“…A turian such as myself do something like this?” Nihlus finishes with a small chuckle. “Not all Turians resent humanity for how young and impatient you are. I believe that Humanity deserves a chance to prove themselves that they are more than the violent newcomers who were thrust upon the galactic scene because of the Relay 314 incident or First Contact War as you humans would call it.”

 

Athena silently contemplates the prospect of becoming a SpecTRe for minute before turning her to look up at Captain Anderson. "Captain?"

 

"This is a big step that humanity needs to take ever since we were thrust upon the galactic stage at the end of the First Contact War." Captain. Anderson replies with a proud grin, giving time for Athena to make a decision.

 

"Then where do we begin, Nihlus?" Athena asks holding her hand which Nihlus accepts and shakes. She feels a familiar pat on her right shoulder and faintly hears her former commanding officer from the 433rd say something as the trio begin discussing the mission.

 

“ _You did well, kid. You did well_.” Major John Hendrickson says proudly with a warm smile spread across his face. “ _We knew you could do it, Staff Commander_.” His ghostly form vanishes before anyone notices his presence.

 

Shortly after the meeting begins, Joker interrupts through the intercom. ("Captain, we have a serious problem.")

 

"What happened?" Captain Anderson hesitantly asks as a look of displeasure washes over his face.

 

("We're received an emergency transmission from Eden Prime and radar is picking up a small fleet of ships in orbit that reads as... Geth?") Joker reports before quietly adding. (“That can’t right.”)

 

"What!? Are you sure?" Captain Anderson exclaims.

 

("We won't know until we get into visual range, sir.")

 

Captain Anderson grits his teeth in frustration. "Play the emergency transmission on the Comms room vid-screen, Lieutenant."

 

The emergency transmission begins playing on the vid screen and the first few moments are of a battle between a Systems Alliance marine unit and an unseen enemy ground troops.

 

A desperate looking human suddenly appears on screen. {"This is Lieutenant Johnson of the 212th Marine Unit. Eden Prime is under attack from unknown hostile forces-."} The lieutenant and the camera are suddenly pushed away by a female soldier in a non- Alliance standard white and pink armor. Seconds later, an explosion goes off a couple meters from where the two soldiers were. The camera refocuses on the ongoing battle for a brief second when a loud deep horn blares. The marines and the camera turn their attention towards the sky in disbelief, stopping whatever they were doing as bullets impact the ground all around them. In the overcast sky, a burgundy colored gauntlet shaped ship that is crackling with red lightning and may possibly be the size of a dreadnaught or carrier slowly descends through the clouds as if it were reaching out to grab something up off of the ground.

 

Another deep horn blares and the transmission abruptly ends leaving Athena, Captain Anderson, and Nihlus standing there uncomfortably as they try to process what they saw.

 

("I'm sorry Captain, that's all there is. There's nothing else being transmitted from Eden Prime.")

 

"Noted." Anderson replies as he activates his Omni-tool to rewind the transmission. The transmission rewinds to part where the ship is descending and Anderson pauses it at a moment when most of the ship is clearly visible. The three of them take a good look at the unknown ship and the uncomfortable feeling of an unwelcome shiver runs down Athena's spine.

 

"How far out are we, Flight Lieutenant?" Athena inquires in an attempt to distract herself from the shiver and to break the uncomfortable silence.

 

("30 minutes ma'am.")

 

"Captain, Nihlus and I can airdrop in with a small strike team into the vicinity of the dig site and secure the beacon for transport without drawing too much attention." Athena suggests with Nihlus nodding his head in approval.

 

"Good idea, Commander. Tell Lieutenant Alenko and Corporal Jenkins to report to the cargo bay for a mission briefing and to gear up."

 

"Yes sir!" Athena snaps a quick salute then turns to leave the room when Anderson returns the salute.


	3. ... It Pours

After what has felt like hours upon hours of sitting there, He had gotten bored of being in his current situation after the explosion sent him to this place. Isaac wasn't sure if he was falling in a certain direction or if he was floating in place in this pitch black windless void that surrounds him. So he decided to revert back to his human form since nothing at all was happening to him or around him.

 

Despite being completely blind from the lack of any sort of light source, he carefully checks himself to make sure all of his equipment and belongings are still on him for the umpteenth time while making sure nothing detaches itself and possibly becomes lost forever. Once satisfied that everything feels like it is still all there, Isaac goes back to being bored of suspended in place senseless while occasionally twisting himself to get some sense of direction.

 

Some unknown amount of time later, Isaac suddenly feels wind blowing into his back followed by the weight of gravity possibly pulling him backwards. Just Isaac was getting used to the of him possibly falling, bright light shines directly into his eyes forcing him to shut them as he realizes that he is falling uncontrollably faster and faster back first, giving him a reason to scream again. When he opens his eyes again, Isaac sees a setting evening sun to his left and sea of trees along with an ever growing massive metallic structure below him. A minute and some justified screaming later, Isaac's journey through the air ends with him landing inside the massive metallic structure with a heavy, dull thud.

 

He lays there groaning for a couple of seconds to allow the pain to somewhat fade away before he slowly gets up to examine where exactly he landed. With some effort, Isaac manages to stand on his two feet and gets a good look of his surroundings as what might be a small battle can be heard behind him.

 

From what he can see, it seems that Isaac landed in a strange looking ocean-less seaport with a humongous glowing crater that looks like a lake of lava just down past the railing in front of him. To his right, he sees a tall black oval shaped pillar that is glowing and some large rectangular boxes that he assumes are some sort of cargo containers ready to be shipped.

 

But before he can properly react to his surroundings in confusion, he hears a strange high pitched static like noise close behind him. Turning around quickly towards the source, only to discover some sort of purplish gray metallic person with a single flashlight for a head and face along with three fingers on each hand. The thing emits the high pitched sound again and swiftly hits Isaac in the head with what appears to the butt of its rifle, turning Isaac's vision black once more.

 

**In the skies over Eden Prime…**

Athena dives through the air with ease towards one of Eden Prime’s many sea of trees as the SSV Normandy slowly disappears into the clouds behind her. To her left, she sees Corporal Jenkins and to her right, Lieutenant Alenko. Shifting her focus ahead of her she sees Nihlus open up his parachute and drift away from the squad as part of the plan to cover more ground. Soon, Athena and her team does the same and begin drifting down towards the planet. As the trio drift down to the planet, a gust of wind blows Athena off course from the original landing zone, towards a patch of trees near the landing zone.

 

Athena softly pierces the canopy of trees shortly before slowing down considerably as her parachute gets tangled up in the branches. Very soon she comes to a stop allowing her to get her bearings when the sound of hurried footsteps and gunfire catch her attention. Below her, she sees a familiar figure, in non-standard white and pink alliance armor, dodging and running away from a pair of Geth troopers that are firing at the fleeing figure. Athena struggles to detach the parachute module from her Onyx armor when the figure passes underneath her before tripping over an exposed tree root. She transforms her Omni-tool into an Omni-blade and slashes at the cords connecting her to the parachute, causing her to drop down onto a branch just below her. When the two Geth troopers approach the spot where the white figure tripped, Athena drops down onto one of the troopers, burying her Omni-blade through its chest and before drawing her Eagle heavy pistol and unloading an entire thermal clip into the second trooper. Athena gets up off the dead trooper as the white figure approaches her from where the figure tripped.

 

“Thank you for the rescue, ma’am.” The woman greets in voice that Athena vaguely recognizes from somewhere as she straightens up and salutes Athena when she notices the rank on Athena’s armor. Athena studies the figure for a moment, trying place a face to the woman’s voice but woman’s helmet obscures just enough of her face that Athena doesn’t recognize her.

 

“You’re welcome. Are you hurt anywhere?” Athena responds, shaking the small feeling of familiarity away to focus on the task at hand.

 

“No ma’am.” The female marine answers.

 

“What’s your name, marine?” Athena inquires.

 

“Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams of the 212th Marine Unit, ma’am” Chief Williams states.

 

“Staff Commander Athena Shepard of the SSV Normandy.” Athena greets, holding out her hand which Chief Williams shakes. “What happened to the rest of your unit, Williams?”

 

Chief Williams relaxes her stance a bit. “We split into our respective squads and retreated in different directions towards the rendezvous point, the spaceport. But my squad ran into an ambush and somehow we got separated from your squad.”

 

“Have you been you been running ever since?” Athena asks.

 

“Yes ma’am. I tried to make my way towards spaceport hoping to reunite with my squad or what is left of the 212 along the way but the enemy is everywhere I go.” Chief Williams explains before looking Athena with a hopeful look. “If you don’t mind me asking, are you part of the reinforcements sent to liberate Eden Prime?”

 

Athena looks away guiltily. “Unfortunately, my squad and I are not here to liberate Eden Prime though the Fifth Fleet is already in-route and should be here in an hour. We are here to retrieve an important asset from the research camp at the Prothean ruins before it falls into enemy hands.”

 

“Oh.” Chief Williams responds disappointed.

 

“Chief Williams, do you care to me and my squad on our mission?” Athena asks, holding out her hand. “I could certainly use the help considering bad the situation is and hopefully we can find your missing squad too. What do you say?”

 

“Yes, ma’am!” Chief Williams proudly says before shaking Athena’s outstretched hand. “Err… where is your squad?”

 

“They should be in a clearing near here.” Athena replies pointing in the general direction of the original landing zone.

 

The two of them begin heading towards the clearing cautiously to avoid any more engagements with Geth forces. Soon they enter a clearing and Athena sees a Lieutenant Alenko crouching over a wounded Corporal Jenkins, patching his chest up. Athena and Chief Williams immediately rushes over to the other pair.

 

“Alenko, what happened?” Athena worriedly asks as she joins Lieutenant Alenko in crouching by Corporal Jenkins’s side as Chief Williams stands guard.

 

“Soon after we landed, a pair of drones ambushed us and they tore through Corporal Jenkins’ shield with ease before we were able to take them down.”

 

“Don’t worry, Commander. This looks worse than it is and as Lieutenant Alenko is done patching me up, I’ll be ready for combat.” Corporal Jenkins says with a wince.

 

“How bad is it really, Alenko?”

 

“A through and through near the stomach and couple of grazes. A quick fix for a canister of medi-gel, ma’am.”

 

Athena lets out a sigh of relief before standing up. “Good. Alenko, Jenkins. This is Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams of the 212th Marine Unit. She’ll be accompanying us on our mission for the time being.”

 

“Nice to meet you guys.” Chief Williams greets with slight nod.

 

Lieutenant Alenko and Corporal Jenkins nod back. “What’s the game plan, Commander?” Lieutenant asks.

 

“The Geth came in force and the 212 was forced to split up and retreat towards the spaceport in response. So we are going to go ahead with the original plan to get to the dig site and secure the beacon for transport to the spaceport. We will hopefully reunite with Nihlus along the way and any survivors of the 212. Any questions?”

 

“Uh, who is this ‘Nihlus’ person?”

 

“Nihlus Kyrik is a turian Council Spectre who was accompanying my squad before he went off on his own to cover more ground.

 

“A Council Spectre …?” Chief Williams’ eyes widen at the realization of how important the beacon is. “Then we better hurry to the dig site then.”

 

“My thoughts exactly, Williams.” Athena replies. “Any more questions?”`

 

“No ma’am” The rest of the squad announces at the same time.

 

After Lieutenant Alenko helps Corporal Jenkins off carefully, the squad leaves the clearing and begin making their way through the trees towards the dig site. Along the way, they encounter a lot of burnt out buildings and some charred corpses which Athena documents with her helmet mounted camera. Eventually, they arrive at the rocky pass leading to the dig site and see that it is lined with light purple spikes with clothed, shriveled up human bodies impaled on them.

 

“Well the dig site is through here but what the fuck is this?” Chief Williams states, pointing out the obvious.

 

“A psychological tactic, maybe?” Corporal Jenkins speculates.

 

“I don’t think so, Jenkins. Some of these bodies look like they have been impaled on these spikes for days.” Athena observes. Looking closer, she notices that some of the bodies are wear civilian clothing typically associated with scientific field work while other bodies wear clothing meant for working in the cargo area of a spaceport and the few remaining bodies are wearing a full set of Alliance standard armor.

 

"Impossible, the attack started late this morning and these spikes weren’t here when my squad started our patrol.” Chief Williams responds.

 

“Whatever these spikes are for, it can’t be good.” Lieutenant Alenko uneasily says.

 

The squad nods in agreement and begin cautiously heading through the pass, wary of the increasingly ominous spikes. Soon they arrive at the dig site with partially uncovered Prothean ruins and a spiral ramp-like hill leading up to another area, only to discover that the dig site is seemingly empty and the beacon missing. Then a burst of gunfire splashes harmlessly against the squad’s shields and instantly takes down Corporal Jenkins’ shields. The squad immediately dives behind the nearest piece of the cover they can find. Lieutenant Alenko and Corporal Jenkins readies their Valkyrie assault rifles as Chief Williams readies her Avenger assault rifle and Athena readies her Hurricane submachine gun.

 

Athena peeks over her cover in time to see three Geth troopers rush up from the dig site, crouching behind cover nearest the dig site. Lieutenant Alenko and Corporal Jenkins pop in and out of cover, laying out suppressive with their Valkyrie rifles. Athena biotically pulls one of the troopers up out of cover allowing Chief Williams to quickly dispatch it. Lieutenant Alenko and Corporal Jenkins pop back into cover to reload their rifles and Athena begins firing at the remaining two troopers to keep their heads down.

 

“Grenade out!” Corporal Jenkins yells out after primes then tosses a frag grenade just as Athena pops back into cover to reload. The Geth troopers pop out cover to begin firing at the squad just in time to miss the grenade landing at their feet and explodes. The squad slowly moves of cover with caution in case reinforcements show up suddenly. Seeing that the coast is clear, all four of them relax their stance slightly and lower their weapons. Athena looks over the empty dig site and it becomes clear that the beacon was moved recently judging by the obvious signs of heavy equipment being used still imprinted in the dirt.

 

“I’m sorry, Commander, the beacon was here this morning.” Chief Williams apologizes.

 

“No worries, Williams. Someone must have moved the beacon sometime after your squad left for patrol and before we got here.”

 

“Yeah but who?” Lieutenant Alenko inquires.

 

“Let’s find out at the research camp. Williams?”

 

“Yes, the research camp is just up this hill. Hopefully someone survived.”

 

The squad heads up the hill to find a devastated research camp a couple of pre-fab structures in the back, debris strewn about, and four more spikes with armored gray corpses impaled on them. As the squad draws closer to the camp, the corpses suddenly begin twitching and the spikes begin to lower as blue lights appear all across the skin of the corpes.

 

“Oh god, they’re still alive.” Corporal Jenkins reacts as the spike stop lowering and the corpses get off the spikes with arcs of electricity come off their bodies.

 

The four corpses charge the squad, causing them to snap up their weapons in a panic. The squad empties their thermal clips into the charging corpses, dropping them inches from their feet. The squad stands there shocked at what just happened.

 

“Everyone saw those spikes going through their CHESTS, right? Right!?” Lieutenant Alenko points out in a panic as Corporal Jenkins throws up and winces in pain somewhere behind the squad. The rest of the squad uneasily nods in agreement, moving away from the now confirmed dead corpses except for Athena.

 

Athena crouches next to one of the corpses and begins scanning it her Omni-tool and camera. A clearly disgusted Chief Williams cautiously steps over the corpses and begins inspecting the camp while Lieutenant Alenko checks on Corporal Jenkins. Athena immediately notices the armor is Alliance standard armor and the huge amount of cybernetics running throughout the body and that the corpses seemed to missing anything that could identify who the corpse was. She checks her Omni-tool for additional info and discovers that the corpse’s DNA still reads as human but has been altered significantly into someone unrecognizable, which only adds to the confusion.

 

“Anything, Commander?” Lieutenant Alenko asks as he returns to Athena’s side.

 

“Absolutely nothing other than the fact that it is a human body packed to the brim with cybernetics.” Athena grimly says as wipes mud off of the armor chest piece of one of the corpses to reveal a rank insignia of 1st Lieutenant and the dog tags wrap around the corpse’s neck. “And the fact that this body and armor belongs to Lieutenant Johnson from the emergency transmission.”

 

Lieutenant Alenko’s mouth hangs open to say something but closes it when he comes up blank for answer.

 

“Commander, I think you need to come see this.” Chief Williams calls out from one of the pre-fab structures.

 

Athena stands up. “Alenko, take Jenkins and go scan the other spikes we saw on the way here and report back on whatever you find.”

 

“Yes ma’am.” Lieutenant Alenko salutes.

 

Athena jogs her way over to Chief Williams’ position to find her standing outside one of the pre-fab structures holding a hand to her mouth as she leans against the structure.

 

“What is it, William?” Athena asks with concern.

 

“Bodies of two scientists from the research team in there. Both of them suffered a single shot to the head.” Chief Williams says weakly.

 

Athena hesitantly steps inside the pre-fab and is greeted with the sight of the bodies of a female scientist and a male scientist, lying on their side in a small puddle of blood with fearful, shocked expressions on their faces and surrounded by various data pads strewn about. Athena grimaces at the sight as she carefully navigates the small space as she scans the room with her Omni-tool.

 

Scanning the bodies reveals the fact that they were killed an hour at most before the squad which in turn leaves a bad taste in Athena’s mouth. When she does a more detailed scan of each bullet entry wounds, her Omni-tool tells her that the scientists were shot point blank execution style. Turning her attention away from the gruesome sight, she looks around the obviously searched room and sees an unlocked terminal with a webcam on a nearby table. Carefully stepping over the out of place crime scene, Athena discovers an active recording that is hours long that she stops the recording and begins playback from the very beginning.

 

The recording begins with the male scientist, identified as Dr. Paul, making a video journal entry on the progress made with the excavation of the Prothean ruins and how bigger and bigger they are getting as the research team exposes more of the ruins. The doctor’s explanation is interrupted by a far off explosion followed by soldiers shouting and barking orders in the background as they presumably rush off towards the explosion. The commotion draws the doctor away from desk and a couple moments of fast forwarding later he comes back into view of the camera frantically gathering various data-pads and other things.

 

More fast forwarding shows the female scientist, identified as Dr. Morrison, helping Dr. Paul gather up what Athena assumes to be research data and artifacts as the battle gets closer to the research camp. Suddenly the two of them stop what they are doing and duck behind the desk with Dr. Morrison locking the door. In the background, Athena hears battle between the marines and the Geth finally reaching the research camp with the marines losing horribly, judging by the sounds of the battle.

 

The recording goes quiet for a bit with barely audible sounds of four marines weakly protesting against their captors followed by the loud, unmistakable sound of those spikes being active and impaling organic flesh. The two scientists turn away from whatever they were looking at in disgust and silently puking moments later. Dr. Paul looks up past the terminal and immediately ducks back down again with a confused look on his face.

 

{What did you see?} Dr. Morrison asks.

 

{A turian leading those things.}

 

{A turian?} Dr. Morrison echoes back. {Are you sure”}

 

{Take a look for yourself.}

 

Dr. Morrison looks up from her position and ducks down almost immediately with a scared look on her face. {“Shit! I think they saw me.”}

 

The two of them make themselves even smaller in what appears to an attempt to hide themselves even further. But moments later the sound of the door unlocking makes them freeze in terror as three Geth Troopers storm inside with their rifles pointed at the scientists. Bizarrely, the troopers don’t kill the scientists and they force them to reposition themselves to where they are sitting side by side on their knees.

 

Out of nowhere, an armored gauntlet holding a light grey Carnifex pistol appears in front of the camera with its barrel an inch or two away from Dr. Morrison’s forehead but not the rest of the individual followed by the unmistakable dual toned sound of a male turian’s voice. {“Where is the Prothean data beacon?”}

 

{“I- I don’t what you’re talking about”} Dr.Paul retorts with shaky confidence much to the mystery turian’s displeasure. The turian orders the troopers to search the structure for information regarding the location of the data beacon. He turns his attention back to the scientists and fires two shots that whizz by the scientists heads shattering their confidence. {“I won’t ask again. Where. Is. The. Beacon?”}

 

{“Platform 11!”} Dr. Morrison blurts out. {“The beacon was moved to Platform 11 in the spaceport earlier today.”}

 

{“Thank you.”} The turian shoots the two scientists in the head anyways and signals the troopers to follow him as he leaves the structure. After the turian and the Geth leave, Athena fast forwards the recording for any additional information.

 

45 minutes later in the recording, the sounds of group of people cautiously making their way into the camp can be barely heard. As the group gets closer to the terminal’s location, it becomes clear that it is another group of marines surprisingly led by Nihlus when his familiar dual toned voice can be audibly heard giving orders to the marines. Soon the group leaves and a gunshot followed by cacophony of gunfire can be faintly heard 5 minutes later. For last 15 minutes of the recording, nothing happened until Chief Williams could be heard choking in disgust and Athena entering the structure to examine the bodies. Athena stops the playback and downloads the recording to her Omni-tool and turns off the terminal as she leaves the structure.

 

“Commander, I did the sweep of the area around the camp and there’s nothing much to report except that the construction area of the spaceport expansion looks like it too has been hit hard.” Chief Williams reports as she steps out of the bushes behind the pre-fab structures. “Did you find the location of the beacon?”

 

“Yeah and an ever worsening situation.” Athena replies as she activates her radio. “Alenko, what is the status of those scans?”

 

(“The scans are complete and we are on way back now.”) Lieutenant Alenko shakily replies.

 

Noticing the shakiness in his voice. “What happened, Alenko?”

 

(“The scan results of the spikes are… disturbing.”)

 

Athena and Chief Williams raise an eyebrow at the news “Roger that, Alenko.”

 

A minute later, Lieutenant Alenko and Corporal Jenkins rush over the top of the hill as fast as they can with worried looks on their faces and soon they regroup with Athena and Chief Williams.

 

“Report, Alenko.”

 

“The spikes they … they …” Lieutenant Alenko takes a moment to catch his breath. “They convert our dead into those… things.”

 

“What?!” Athena and Chief Williams exclaim in alarm. “How?!”

 

Lieutenant Alenko and Corporal Jenkins rub the back of their necks nervously before Lieutenant Alenko responds. “They slowly drain the bodies of its liquids and replaces the empty space with cybernetics, turning the bodies into some sort of husk.” The squad stands there in silence for a moments as they try process that piece of information.

 

“Okay then. I have some good news and some bad news that makes when current situation even worse.” Athena says breaking the silence. “The good news is that the beacon is at the spaceport. More good news is that Nihlus is still alive and is with a group of marines and that they are heading towards the spaceport as we speak with a 10 minute lead. The bad news is that there is another turian leading the Geth and that they have an hours lead ahead of us.

 

The rest of the squad cringes and shifts uncomfortably at the bad news when Chief Williams speaks up. “I’m concerned that he hasn’t radioed in at all after you guys landed. Is that too part of the plan?”

 

“Captain’s Order to reduce the chance of detection not that it did us any good but Nihlus is a different story all together.” Athena explains. “If that is all, then we better get moving.”

 

The rest of the squad silently nod in agreement and they begin heading towards the spaceport when they hear a low rumbling sound of engines lifting something large and heavy upwards as they near the edge of the research camp. They rush in the direction of the construction area of the spaceport and in the distance they see an all too familiar red ship lifting off the ground near the spaceport. The squad watches in awe as the hand, possibly squid, shaped ship slowly makes its way into space leaving behind a trail of smoke and exhaust. Suddenly a bullet whizzes by Athena’s head, snapping the squad out their trance. They immediately dive for the nearest cover as more bullets come flying towards them.

 

 

Athena peeks out from her piece of cover and sees five Geth troopers advancing towards the squad along 3 spikes that begins to lower towards the ground to release the husks from impalement. Athena signals to the squad to open fire as the husks quickly rush towards and the troopers cautiously advance. Corporal Jenkins, Lieutenant Alenko, and Chief Williams aim their rifles and fire into the surprisingly nimble husks. As the unfazed husks grow closer, Athena opens fire with her pistol but the husks continue forward despite getting shot multiple times while Chief Williams and Corporal Jenkins shift their fire to suppress the troopers. When the husks get even closer, Athena biotically pulls the husks into the air and Lieutenant Alenko throws a biotic warp at the floating husks causing a biotic explosion that kills the husks.

 

The troopers begin moving from one piece of cover to another, popping up to take pot shots at the squad. Chief Williams and Corporal Jenkins prime one of their frag grenades and throw them near the advancing troopers. The grenades explosions force two of the troopers out of cover and killing another. The squad immediately focus fire on the two out of cover troopers, killing the troopers before turning their attention to the remaining two troopers. The two remaining troopers begin when Athena overloads their shields and the rest of the squad quickly take them down. The squad cautiously approaches the spaceport entrance with their rifle ready in case more Geth show up.

 

“No!” Chief Williams gasps as she pushes her way past the squad, turning their attention to a scene that only worsens the current situation even more. Lying in pools of freshly spilled blood is Nihlus Kyrik and four alliance marines as Chief Williams kneels next to one of the bodies repeatedly saying no over and over.

 

Athena approaches the distraught Chief Williams from behind and helps her off her knees as Lieutenant Alenko and Corporal Jenkins secure the area. “Easy there, Williams, easy there.” Athena soothes.

 

“My squad…” Chief Williams sobs as Athena maneuvers her away from the scene.

 

After Athena sits Chief Williams down, she moves back over to the bodies and begins scanning with her Omni-tool and camera. The first thing her Omni-tool informs her is that the gunshot wound in the back Nihlus’ head was caused by a point blank shot from the same pistol that killed the scientists When she begins scanning Nihlus’ body, she notices that his Omni-tool is still open and unlocked. She links her Omni-tool with his Omni-tool and discovers 5 recently created audio logs among other things. Athena plays the first audio log.

 

{“Entry #3 of the Observation of Staff Commander Athena Shepard’s Spectre candidacy. The voyage is under way and so far I am impressed with the Commander’s ability to lead. But I can’t shake this feeling that I am being watched because every time –“} Athena stops the audio playback and looks behind her to see the surprised looks on the squad’s faces when things go quiet suddenly.

 

“We’ll discuss this later.” Athena states before hitting play on the second audio log.

 

{“Made it on to the ground without getting spotted and the situation is already bad. There a lot of burnt out buildings but not a lot of bodies though. I’ll keep moving towards the dig site and hope to find more information there. Nihlus out.”}

 

Athena begins the third audio log. {“Joined up with a squad of the human 212th Marine Unit led by a Corporal Ramirez. From what he tells me of the retreat, the situation is lot worse than it looks like. We’ll be heading towards the rendezvous point for the 212 and maybe we’ll pass by the dig site along the way. Nihlus out”}

 

Athena begins the fourth audio log. {“We haven’t made it to the rendezvous just but there’s these spikes with human bodies impaled on them tha-“} The sound of someone getting impaled followed by an audible gasp interrupts Nihlus

 

{“Nihlus! They… they just impaled that colonist while he was still alive.”} Someone says in the background.

 

{“What?!”} Nihlus exclaims just before the audio log ends with the sound of gunfire.

 

Athena begins the fifth and final audio log with some concern. {“We’ve arrived at the research camp and it has been hit hard. The beacon is not here and there more of these blasted spikes with four unlucky souls impaled on them. Thankfully there is an entrance to the spaceport through the nearby construction area of the spaceport expansion.”}

 

{“Hey Nihlus, there’s a turian waiting in the construction area.”} Someone else calls out from the background.

 

{“What?”} Nihlus asks with concern. {Describe this… turian to me.”}

 

{Uh, he is wearing some sort of gray armor I’ve never seen, has visible cybernetics running along his left side and the back of his head to his neck like an oxygen hose for hard suits.”} The marine explains.

 

{“What about his clan markings?”}

 

{“Clan what?”}

 

{“The face paint.”}

 

{“He has none.”}

 

Athena hears a worried growl escape Nihlus’ mandibles before he barks orders to move towards the spaceport with caution. A minute of careful walking the recording ends with Nihlus saying. {“Saren!? What are you doing here?”}

 

Athena checks Nihlus’ Omni-tool’s recording program for an active recording session but is disappointed to find that there are no other recordings. She shuts off Nihlus’ Omni-tool and marks the location of the bodies in her own Omni-tool for later retrieval of the bodies. She looks at each of the bodies faces as she scans them to find that the marines have shocked expressions as if they were surprised while Nihlus’ expression is one of thoughtful concern. The additional scans tell Athena that the odd angled entry wounds on the marines’ bodies are a result of the marines being shot from all sides.

 

“Commander, we have an incoming cargo tram.” Corporal Jenkins calls out, breaking Athena from her thoughts and prompts Lieutenant Alenko to join him by his side to see what is happening.

 

Athena gets off the ground with sorrowful face and puts a hand on Chief Williams’ shoulder apologetically as she passes by her. “I’m sorry that this turned out like it did, Williams, but we need to get going.”

 

“I understand, Commander and… thank you.” Chief Williams responds giving a sad sweeping look at the squad she once led, silently giving them her goodbyes before steeling herself and joining up with Athena and her squad.

 

Once the squad is together, they cautiously approach the tram station as the incoming tram slows to a stop. On the tram, they see a large group of figures with a large figure near the back of the tram, waiting for the tram to come to a stop. The large figure looks at the squad, revealing itself as a large blue Geth with a yellow stripe and the rest of the group turn to look at what the large Geth is looking at, revealing themselves as Geth troopers.

 

The squad collectively let out a groan before once again diving behind the nearest piece of cover as the Geth step off the cargo tram towards the squad. The squad opens fire into the group, killing a couple of troopers and wounding a couple more as the rest of the group scatter behind cover. Chief Williams and Corporal Jenkins drops back into cover to reload her rifle as the large Geth begins to charge through Athena and Lieutenant Alenko’s bursts of fire. Corporal Jenkins and Chief Williams quickly replace their rifle’s spent thermal clips and pop back out of cover as Athena and Lieutenant Alenko drop back into to reload their weapons. Chief Williams and Corporal Jenkins focus their fire on to the large charging Geth unit but it ignores the fire to continue charging towards the squad, readying what appeared to be a shotgun of some sort. A couple bursts of gunfire forces Corporal Jenkins to lower his head behind cover and when he brings his head up in time to see the damaged blue/yellow Geth unit pointing its weapon at him. Before any of the squad could react, the damaged blue/yellow fires its weapon once into Corporal Jenkins’ chest, taking out his shields instantly and killing him.

 

The rest of the squad fire their weapons until they click empty into the damaged blue/yellow Geth unit, bringing it down before it has chance to do more damage. The squad reenter their pieces of cover to reload their weapons as the remaining Geth units cautiously reposition themselves for a better tactical advantage. Athena peeks over her cover to assess the situation and sees that the remaining Geth have spread out in one group.

 

Weighing her options in her mind, Athena comes up with a plan of action and begins charging her biotics. “Williams, how many grenades do you have left?” She asks via her radio.

 

“Only one ma’am.” Chief Williams replies.

 

Athena takes note of that then turns to Lieutenant Alenko. “Alenko, I’m going pull as many as I can into the air in couple moments. I need you to throw out as many warps as you can into those that are floating while Williams throws her last grenade at the feet of those not floating. Hopefully the resulting chain of explosions will take out most of them and the rest will be stunned momentarily for us to rush them. Roger that?”

 

“Yes ma’am!” Lieutenant Alenko and Chief Williams acknowledge.

 

With that Athena pops out of cover and unleashes a powerful pull field in the most clustered part of the group before returning behind her piece of cover as Chief Williams primes her final grenade. When the enemies begin to rise, Lieutenant Alenko throws out the warp that splits off into two warps while Chief Williams throws the grenade at the semi clustered group that was not pulled into the air. The resulting chain of explosions was massive leaving very little behind aside from scattered parts of Geth and charred remnants of cargo containers.

 

The squad cautiously moves from their pieces of cover and slowly make their way towards the now empty cargo tram. Athena crouches down next to Corporal Jenkins’ body, while Lieutenant Alenko and Chief Williams stand silently behind her with their heads hung low, to close his eyes and they give him their silent goodbyes before they continue onto the tram. Athena starts the cargo tram before making her towards a nearby crate to sit down against. Chief Williams and Lieutenant Alenko get themselves into relaxed defensive positions as the tram begins to move.

 

10 minutes later...

 

The cargo tram rounds a corner bringing Platform 11 into sight. As they approach the platform, Athena spots several different colored Geth troopers milling about on the catwalks above the tram tracks through her binoculars.

 

Lowering her binoculars, she turns towards her squad. "Ok squad here's the situation." She brings up 3D holographic map the platform. "The Geth are already here and possibly their leader, Saren. There are currently several troopers patrolling these catwalks *Athena points to both catwalks* which means there are more patrolling the loading bay on the left side of the tram tracks. From what I can see from the loading bay is filled with small cargo containers, so expect close quarter combat."

 

Chief Williams and Lieutenant Alenko nod in agreement.

 

"Lieutenant Alenko, you and I are going to take point and go down the middle of the loading bay. Chief Williams, you'll cover us from rear."

 

The tram begins to slow down as they approach the platform. The squad gets themselves into cover expecting the inevitable gunfire that is sure to come once the tram pulls into the tram station. Chief Williams and Lieutenant Alenko grip their rifles in anticipation and Athena draws her Eagle heavy pistol.

 

As soon as the tram begins the platform's tram station, a Geth trooper lets out a shrill alarm alerting the others to tram. The other visible Geth stop in their tracks to look at the tram, creating an opportunity that the squad exploits by popping out their cover taking 2 troopers out, injuring the third one, and forcing the last one to hide behind a nearby crate. 

 

 

Moments later, 2 more Geth troopers appear in the middle of the platform and begin firing upon the squad, forcing them off the tram. They immediately dive behind the nearest cargo container with a couple bullets bouncing of their shields. Athena quickly peeks over the container between volleys of gunfire to assess the situation and comes up with a plan.

 

"Williams, I want you to suppress the two in the middle. Alenko, I'll pull the injured one out of cover for you to take out and I'll try to take out the last remaining one. Then we'll move in as planned. Roger that?"

 

"Yes ma'am."

 

When the break in the troopers' suppressive gunfire ends, the trio suddenly break cover with Chief Williams firing bursts down the middle killing one unprepared trooper and forcing the other into cover, Athena pulling the injured trooper out of its cover before turning her pistol onto to the remaining Geth trooper killing it with a couple shots, and Lieutenant Alenko easily picks the floating trooper with his rifle before  snapping off a shot down the middle to finish off the other trooper who decided to pop out of cover briefly when Chief Williams went to reload her Avenger assault rifle.

 

They sit there for a moment to catch their breaths before continuing further into loading bay that soon opens into a spacious adjustable docking bay overlooking a humongous angrily glowing crater and sea of trees. In the middle of the docking bay, sits the Prothean data beacon sitting on top of a pallet, unsecured and glowing green, along with a strange beeping box in front of it.

 

Out of the corner of her eye, Athena sees movement and immediately snaps up her pistol in the direction of the movement. What she sees is a Geth trooper hitting a rather large man over the head with the butt of its rifle with a resounding crack. As the man crumples to the ground like a bag of bricks, she unloads the rest of her pistol's thermal clip into the trooper, killing it quickly.

 

"Alenko! Williams! Secure the beacon!" She shouts as she runs over to the fallen man while activating her radio and an emergency beacon as Lieutenant Alenko and Chief Williams comply with the orders.  "SSV Normandy, this is Staff Commander Shepard requesting immediate medivac at my location." She reaches the fallen obviously unconscious man and gets on her knees to assess the man's profusely bleeding head injury before continuing on. "I have civilian in need of immediate medical attention."

 

"Commander, we have a bomb here." Lieutenant Alenko calls out.

 

("Commander, the Normandy is in-route to your location. ETA 5 minutes.") Captain Anderson announces over the radio.

 

Athena pulls out a field dressing and applies it to the head wound, securing it tightly in the process. Behind her, she hears Lieutenant Alenko yelp in surprise and she turns around to see him getting pulled towards the beacon by an invisible force while Chief Williams kneels by the bomb torn between helping Lieutenant Alenko and continuing defusing the bomb. Athena's body immediately jumps into action, rushing over to Lieutenant Alenko and takes his place by pushing out of the way. The Prothean data beacon lifts Athena into the air and begins rapidly downloading information into her as the other two squad members watch in confusion as this happens.

 

Shortly after the download begins, sparks and arcs of green electricity come flying off the beacon and it explodes, sending Athena flying across the docking bay unconscious. Just before Athena lands on the ground, Chief Williams could sworn that she briefly saw several pairs of ghost hands appear out of the ground to cushion Athena’s fall before disappearing as fast as they appeared. Lieutenant Alenko and Chief Williams rapidly defuse the bomb then rush over to Athena's side to assess her injuries.

 

"SSV Normandy, this is 2nd Lieutenant Alenko. Tell Dr. Michel to prep the med-bay for an additional person. Commander Shepard is down! I repeat Commander Shepard is down!" Lieutenant Alenko frantically says into his radio. "Williams, secure the civilian for transport."

 

"Yes, sir!" Chief Williams replies before sprinting over to the unconscious man only to be perplexed when she sees the man's strange uniform that looks strangely familiar. With a shake of her head, she begins checking over the man's body for any other wounds and she takes note of the knifelike hole in his lower back and the various shrapnel like tears in his strange uniform. In the distance, she faintly hears the low rumble of the Normandy's engines getting closer and closer as the curved silhouette of the ship gets bigger and bigger in front of the sunset.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter turned out to be longer than I expected but hopefully it doesn't impact the reading experience too much. Any comments and feedback of any sort is helpful.


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